President Barack Obama signed a one-week temporary measure Friday evening, permitting the highway and loan programs to continue until the full legislation reaches his desk for signature. Otherwise, the federal transportation and many state and local projects would have stopped today, June 30.
The first major transportation bill since 2005, the legislation would keep highway and transit spending at current levels through the end of fiscal year 2014.
It includes an expansion of a federal loan program to fast-track bus and rail projects in traffic-choked regions. The transportation measure would create or save 3 million jobs, said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA, chief sponsor of the Senate version of the bill
The
following are some of the freight-related components in the bill:
·
Projects
of National and Regional Significance – (Sec. 1120 – or page 90)
·
National
Freight Policy (Sec. 1115, §167 – or page 66)
o
Calls
for the establishment of a national freight network
o
Calls
for a national freight strategic plan
·
A
call for the prioritization of projects to improve freight movement (Sec. 1116
– or page 70)
o
Allows
for increased Federal Share (up to 95% for projects on Interstate system; 90%
for other projects)
§
Eligible
projects:
·
construction,
reconstruction, rehabilitation, and operational improvements directly relating
to improving freight
·
movement;
·
intelligent
transportation systems and other technology to improve the flow of freight;
·
efforts
to reduce the environmental impacts of freight movement on the primary freight
network;
·
railway-highway
grade separation;
·
geometric
improvements to interchanges and ramps.
·
truck-only
lanes;
·
climbing
and runaway truck lanes;
·
truck
parking facilities eligible for funding under section 1401;
·
real-time
traffic, truck parking, roadway condition, and multimodal transportation
information systems;
·
improvements
to freight intermodal connectors; and improvements to truck bottlenecks.
·
State
Freight Advisory Committees are encouraged (Sec. 1117 – or page 70)
·
State
Freight Plans are encouraged (Sec. 1118 – or page 71)
Rs dropped an effort trying to use the bill to advance
the controversial Keystone XL pipeline
to move oil from western Canada to Texas' Gulf Coast. Ds made concessions that are
likely to lead to less funding for bicycle, pedestrian and beautification
project and
would halve the time allowed for environmental reviews for highway projects. “This measure includes historic reforms – cutting red tape and consolidating or eliminating nearly 70 federal programs,” said House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John L. Mica, R-FL.
.
The Alaska Railroad says that
Congress struck a deal to save it from a massive budget cut that could have
meant large-scale layoffs and less passenger service. Railroad officials said Alaska's U.S. Rep. Don Young's office told them Thursday the railroad should expect a $4 million cut instead of the $30 million cut proposed in the Senate version.
The bill also includes a measure to renew the federal flood insurance
program for five years. Congressional leaders paved the way for the bill’s
approval after dropping a measure that would have forced millions of property
owners living near flood control facilities to buy flood insurance. The mandate
was designed to shore up an insurance program that is billions of dollars in
debt, largely because of Hurricane Katrina and other 2005 hurricanes.
The measure also would avert a doubling of interest rates
for millions of college student loans that was threatened to hit Sunday. The student loan measure spares an estimated 7.4 million
students who get subsidized Stafford loans beginning July 1 — this Sunday —
from facing $1,000 in higher interest costs over the lives of their loans,
which typically take over a decade to repay.
